This Soviet map of military and industrial buildings in Leicester during the Cold War shows how the city would have been targeted.

The map, dated 1974, highlights all the city's significant structures, such as colleges, a Territorial Army base and numerous factories.

It is thought the topographical plans were created using aerial photography, satellite images and reports from undercover Soviet agents.

Professor Kenneth Morrison, senior lecturer in modern European history at De Montfort University, said: "All major industrial cities would have been legitimate targets in the event of a nuclear war, with the main objective being to destroy the UK's military, communications and civilian infrastructure and to decimate its industrial capacity.

"Even those seemingly benign industrial centres, such as Leicester, were home to factories that could have been put to use to produce military equipment and supplies. It was, therefore, a legitimate military target.

"The very fact that such detailed maps of the city exist suggests that the Cold War did impact upon Leicester, despite the fact many citizens may have been unaware of this."

Factories

Bus depot and gas works

Charles Keene College

Territorial Army Centre and factories

Great Central railway station

Primary school

Leicester railway station & goods yard

College on Mill Lane / Goswell Street

The maps would have been used by the Soviet military intelligence to develop an offensive strategy in the event of a nuclear war.

Military strategists would have devised a "strike pattern", in which important industrial sites would have been identified as "first-strike targets", said Dr Morrison.

Military bases, Government and administrative buildings, industrial sites, power stations, coal mines and communications centres would have all been primary targets.

Dr Morrison said that Leicester's hosiery industry could be one of the reason the city was highlighted as a target.

"They relate directly to the Ordnance Survey maps of the time. The roads, rail and river networks are the same and all the buildings are the same.

"It is just that these military maps have top secret buildings that the OS could not show.

"They reveal the exact location and purpose of every structure of possible military importance, including details such as the width of our roads, the height of our bridges and the depth of our rivers."